The Listener

1) Can you give an example of “listening in search” and “listening in readiness” in your current environment?

2) What is the “keynote” sound of where you are right now? Explain your reasoning.

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3) Craft your own response to the article.

Heather's Response to "The Listener"

The article "The Listener" categorizes the various types of listening under different headlines and then explains the various groupings. It begins by differentiating hearing- which is more passive and can occur unconsciously from listening- which involves a more active role and has several level of attention. There is also an interesting section on the history of listening and how sounds and our perception of them have changed over time. For instance, there is a quote talking about how in the past people could match up various sounds outside with a specific cart and each cart had its own unique sound. Another quote in this section relates to sound and survival and how boat captains used echo sounds in order to estimate distances. The importance of sound and survival has of course changed now because of new technology effecting our relationship with the environment- but it is still interesting to remember that sound can be used and often was used in the past as a technique for survival. The last section of the article revolves around consumerism and puts into perspective that the listener can be a consumer of more than just buying a recorded sound. There are also other factors like marketing that shape our attitudes towards listening and how the public has been influenced by the consumer culture. The article concludes with stressing how the listener is exposed to a limited range of music due to their specific culture, and a solution that could help fix this problem is exposure to other alternative forms of music and sounds.

Sara A's response to the article "The Listener"

I thought it was really interesting when the article discussed the three levels of listening attention. The article stated that sound was important for symbolic reasons (association built over time), survival reasons (active listening), and association with memories. It is very interesting to sort out the sounds we hear everyday because, mostly, we don't think much of them. Modern technology has changed out perception and relationship to sound. Certain sounds now sound all the same and we associate one sound for a series of objects. One example is the delivery truck, which was an example given from the reading. Another really interesting point from the article talks about how the most common reason for sounds to be heard in background listening is because they are a usual occurrence, and therefore expected or predictable. The World Soundscape Project has named these sounds as keynote sounds. They were given this name not because of their characteristics, but because of the way in which it is habitually perceived. Another really interesting idea that the article expressed was that a listener can be a consumer, but not only in the sense of buying recorded sound, but also adapting listening habits that encourage it. This is true of a lot of popular radio stations today. In general, there are only about ten songs a day that a radio station will repeat in order to advertise a new artist or a new song that they want society to buy into for profit or for fame.

Marika's Response to the article "The Listener"

I found this article to be quite fascinating. The concept of sound and the ability to listen is something that most of us take for granted. For instance, since I can hear what is going on around me everyday I do not tend to stop and analyze the concept of hearing. An example of how someone begins to understand the value of hearing is when they become blind. Since you have lost your vision, the ability to hear what is going on around you will help guide you everywhere. The rest of this article introduces so many complex ideas about sound that I never knew existed. Even learning about the three levels of listening was intriguing.

Response to the article "The Listener" by Morgan

I thought this article was really interesting. I had never really thought about the audio world in this sense before. It was interesting to think about how much we depend sound and noise without being consciously aware of it. It is scary how much information our brains take in just from what we hear and how much of that can be controlled by commercialism and consumerism. I take in things better if I can hear them and put a picture to them so it is interesting to think about what I am hear unconsciously and making a picture for in my head without really knowing. It is interesting to think about this as an art form because, you can use sound, and the images and messages people associate that sound with to create a picture of send a message without having to say anything. It will always be in a sense a new piece because the audience will experience it and hear it differently and then also associate different meanings with it.